Look to the Past
by atlantiandragoness
Summary: Gatomon's in serious trouble, but what happens when her only hope is already dead?
1. Nightmares

There's a slight referrence to my other fic, _Gatomon's Hero _in here so if one part doesn't really make any since to you and you haven't read it, that's why. It's only slight though.

Disclaimer: The only things I own Digimon related are a plushie, a few cards and a video game. If I did, Wizardmon wouldn't have died, or he at least would've come back.

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Another typically Saturday afternoon. The new digidestined were caught up in a friendly game of, you guessed it, soccer. Although they usually played humans vs. digimon, they had to change team arrangements today due to the absence of two members of the digital team. Since Gatomon had chosen to sit this one out, Wormmon seized the opportunity to watch from the sidelines as well. Unlike his partner, he wasn't too fond of of playing soccer. Because of his lack of speed, size, and power, he spent the game avoiding being trampled or run over by the ball. Gatomon had different reasons.

She usually loved playing soccer with the kids, but something had been bothering her lately. Something that just wouldn't go away.

"Nightmares," she breathed out from her branch, high above the soccer field, and nightmares they were. Nightmares of a bad memory, horribly disfigured. She had had them before, but never like this, never as horrifying. She ran a claw over the tree trunk she'd been leaning against, leaving a slight indention, then traced over the slash with her tail ring. Gatomon shut her eyes, trying to keep the horrible dreams from seeping into her consciousness, but it was futile. She gasped as the images flooded into her mind, blending with reality...

...Gatomon reopened her eyes. She was on the TV station where Matt and T.K.'s father worked. Behind her she could hear Kari's short, terrified breathes, and before her. Before her was the cause of every nightmare she's ever had, Myotismon. Hovering behind him was Angemon, staff clutched tightly in his hands as he awaited retaliation from the vampire, but of course, he never did. Instead, he decided to turn around and launched his Grizzly Wing at her and Kari.

_Here it comes_, Gatomon thought sadly, not referring to being hit to with the attack. No, she was referring to someone else being hit. Out of nowhere, Wizardmon stepped in and blocked the attack. _How many times must I relive this moment? _Tears in her eyes, she and Kari rushed to his side, completely ignoring Myotismon's remark.

"Wizardmon, you're going to be alright, please don't leave," Kari sobbed. He turned his head slightly to look at Gatomon.

"Are you alright...Gatomon?" he wheezed.

"You saved me, I'm sorry," Gatomon replied.

"You should be!" he suddenly hissed, his gentle emerald eyes turning a piercing blood red. The whole world went black. Gatomon found herself standing in total nothingness that seemed to stretch on forever, everyone else gone. Wizardmon appeared again, but in ghost form. His eyes were still an unfriendly crimson. "It's your fault I'm dead, all yours!" he accused.

Gatomon stepped back in fear, gloves pressed firmly against her purple tufted ears. "No, no! This isn't real!" she screamed. "Your not the real Wizardmon!" Although a ghost, he still grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her up into the air.

"Admit it, IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

"No!" She jerked herself free and ran away, but what was once solid ground under her paws turned to empty space. Gatomon felt her self falling. As she screamed, her only response was an evil chuckle and the specter reappeared, hovering by her falling figure.

"Now you shall suffer my fate."

"No!" she screamed again, falling further and further into the darkness. She grew dizzy and felt everything fading away, but the evil chuckling continued to ring in her ears. Then, like everything else, her vision began to go black...

"Gatomon! Are you alright?"

She stirred at the sound of Kari's voice, and opened her eyes to find she was being cradled in Kari's arms, the other five digidestined peering down anxiously.

"Fine," Gatomon said, pushing herself to the ground, then staring up at the branch she had been perched on only moments ago.

"Are you sure? You fell from an awfully high up," T.K. said.

"Yeah, good thing Kari noticed and caught you," Yolei added. The feline digimon nodded absentmindedly, still staring upwards.

"You okay?" Patamon squeaked. She jerked back to reality.

"Yeah, I just need some time to think," she answered, walking away.

"I'll come with you!" Veemon chimed in, tagging along after her.

"Alone!" Gatomon snapped as she spun around on her heels, her face merely inches away from his. The blue lizard stood, stunned, and Gatomon took this time to leave.

She kept running till she reached a rather empty part of the park and lied down on the hard wooden bench.

_Not as comfortable as a tree branch,_ she thought, but she didn't need to be worrying about falling again. She wrapped her tail around the bench's leg, like a purple and white striped snake, but recoiled it after a few minutes. Gatomon sighed, trying to drive the nightmares out of her mind. Wizardmon's death has always haunted her, but it's never been this bad. Turning over on her back, she closed her eyes, remembering the good times she had had with him. There had always been the day she found him on that mission. An unconventional meeting, but one that had changed her life forever. She remembered the strange feelings she had had that day when talking to him, the feelings that made her tell him, a complete stranger, the secrets she hadn't even told Myotismon. Gatomon remembered all the tricks they had played on Demidevimon, the times they'd snuck out of the castle without anyone knowing, and all the nights they'd spent just watching the stars. She chuckled to herself, wiping a lone tear from her eye. It was one of those nights she'd finally figured out what those strange feelings were, but how do you tell your best friend you're in love with him? She sighed, she never could tell him.

"No, happy memories," Gatomon told herself. She thought back to the night he told her she was the eighth digimon. That had been one of the happiest moments of her life, and he had made it possible. Then when Wizardmon came back and attacked Myotismon, after she had assumed he drowned. She'd been so happy to know he was alright then. She quickly flashed her mind forward, past his death. Another moment that stood out in her mind was seeing his ghost and knowing that he's still watching over her. Then she thought of a few months ago when she had seen his ghost again, spoke with him, _sang_ with him. It was so out of character that Gatomon had tried to convince herself a thousand times it was only a dream, but no, it actually happened.

Gatomon smiled. _These_ were the memories that kept the nightmares from taking over. As long as the good overweighed the bad, she couldn't be taken over by darkness. Slowly, she reopened her eyes, surprised at the maroon hue of twilight that greeted her vision. Had she really been lying there that long? Sitting up and stretching, Gatomon decided to head home, hoping Kari wasn't too worried about her being out so late. She quietly made her way through the park, first checking back on the soccer field, incase the kids were still playing, or waiting for her return.

No one.

"Must've gone home," Gatomon whispered. She looked to the horizon, the sun retreating farther under it's borders till it was out of sight. Night fell, a little too fast for comfort, and without the illumination of the moon and stars, just darkness. "Not another nightmare," she rasped. Then the laughter came. It wasn't the chuckling of Wizardmon that had been haunting her the past couple of weeks, no it was someone else. The bone-chilling laugh of someone she used to know. Someone she wanted to forget.

"No, my dear. You only wish this was a nightmare," the voice told her. There was a flash and everything suddenly went cold. Gatomon cried out, her consciousness faded fast and her body began to fall back.

She was out before she hit the ground.


	2. Return

"Tai, I'm worried," Kari softly murmured to her older brother, constantly pacing between the couch and window of their apartment, pausing only to look out of the latter.

"You always worry," came the response from the former digidestined leader who was comfortably stretched out on the sofa, taking full advantage of the space. He clicked the remote, apparently more interested with channel surfing then actually watching TV. Kari's response was only a glare that went completely unnoticed. "Gatomon stays out late all the time, you've said so yourself. Why should tonight be any different?"

"Because by the time it takes to get you and Agumon to wake up, she's been back." Tai and Agumon, who had been sitting just in front of the couch the whole time, exchanged annoyed glances.

Kari continued her pacing.

"You're gonna wear a hole in the floor," Tai chided. With a sigh, she stopped and leaned against the sliding glass door.

"Please be alright."

Gatomon shot open her sapphire eyes, ignoring the numbing cold that still clung to her body. Slowly pushing herself up, she tried to decipher new surroundings. It was dark, that much she could tell in her dazed state. It was also dusty, as she collected when she sneezed at the small particles floating in the air.

"Quiet prisoner," a voice snapped. Gatomon quickly shook her head to clear her senses. She found her self staring at the iron bars of a very small, crude cell. A scar-eyed Bakemon seated in a chair eyed her scrutinizingly, a large silver key to his side. Gatomon grinned. Oh yes, she remembered this guy.

"You look tired," she purred, "How about letting me handle guard duty and you get some sleep?" She put her paw out for the key.

He blinked a few times. "Uh, sure. Thanks..." The sheet floated over to hand her the unlocking device, but snatched it away last minute. "Oh no! You and that wizard tricked me once. It's not happening again!" He let it clang noisily to the floor by his chair and settled back into it. Gatomon pouted at the miracle that he'd been able to call her bluff. Even though it was under far different circumstances last time, Bakemon were still dumb enough to fall for something like that. "Where is your friend anyway?"

"None of your business!" she hissed, turning her back to him.

"Whatever. I bet you're wondering where you are and why." She slightly flicked an ear. True, she had been curious as to what was going on, but she held onto her position. The Bakemon waited a few moments for her to ask, but when it was clear she wasn't, he chimed in. "Well, I'm not telling you. That's a surprise." Gatomon stayed silent. Whatever the surprise was, she wasn't going to like it. "Aren't you going to beg me to tell you?" he asked. Gatomon shook her head. "Come one. You're _dying_ to know what it is."

_And you seem to be _dying _to talk. _She glanced over her shoulder at the guard, his face pressed against the bars in a taunting manner. Quick as lightning, she snatched the ghost digimon by his neck, pulling him into the parallel iron rods.

"Now listen to me. You have five seconds to open this cage before I turn you into a rag doll." Instead of a terrified whimper, Gatomon's response was a sharp pain going to her side. She dropped the ghost, who scrambled back to his post, and fell to the floor, clutching a huge bruise that appeared on her side.

"You've gotten weak," a voice sneered.

Gatomon looked up with a growl. Staring at her with a smile playing upon his purple lips was the same mask-wearing digimon she had come to hate so much. She'd seen him meet his demise three times, and here he was again, the same as when she first met him.

"I thought only cats had nine lives," she spat, narrowing her eyes to blue slits. Myotismon only laughed, showing off his fangs.

"I'm surprised you recovered from my Nightmare Claw so quickly. It usually would an Ultimate days before they awoke. I guess your not totally useless." It seemed impossible, but Gatomon managed to narrow her eyes even more. The vampire wiped the grin off his face. "Crimson Lightning!" The stream of red energy lashed against her side again, enlarging the bruise. "What did I tell you about looking at me with those eyes!?"

"You don't own me anymore." He whipped her again in the same place, this time causing the skin to open up and a crimson liquid to leak out. "It's a shame I shall have to destroy. You and your pathetic friends."

"They'll defeat you again!" Gatomon yelled, blood dripping off her gloves as she covered her wound.

"Oh really? The only reason you won was because I put too much energy into that attack that was _supposed_ to kill you and your partner, but that idiotic wizard got in the way."

"Don't you dare talk about him that way! He's a better digimon than you'll ever be."

"Don't you mean was?" Gatomon folded her ears back, her eyes shut to hold back any tears. She wasn't about to let him catch her crying. Myotismon lowered his face to her level, even though she couldn't see him and whispered, "You know it's all your fault." before slipping into the darkness. Gatomon gasped, but her former master was no where in sight. She hugged her knees to her chest and wrapped her tail around her feet, letting a few tears escape her eyelids.

Meanwhile, Myotismon was just around the corner. Above his shoulder floated a brown and blue boar-like digimon with fan-like ears and a smokey trail instead of back legs. A helmet rested upon his forehead and a gold ring on his forearm.

Myotismon glanced at his minion. "You know what to do."

"Yes master," the Tapirmon replied, bowing as the vampire left. He silently floated into the other room, unseen by both Gatomon and the now sleeping guard. "Nightmare Syndrome," he whispered as the black mist rolled over Gatomon. She shivered and fell into a fitful sleep. The Tapirmon laughed under his breath. "Let the nightmares begin."


	3. Another Prophecy!

Sometime around noon, the junior digidestined and their respective digimon (except one of course) had assembled in Izzy's room for an emergency meeting called by Tai and Izzy. Positioned at his work station, Izzy spun the chair around to face the younger kids.

"Matt and Sora said they're going to do a once-over the town to see if they can't find Gatomon and our digimon are checking around the digital world. The computer beckoned with a soft chime, and Izzy turned back to the screen, opening a file that just appeared. "It's an email from Joe. He says he's got a huge test in a few minutes, but he'll help once it's over."

"Is Joe always testing when there's a crisis?" Davis asked, adjusting the goggles given to him by Tai.

"_Some_ of us actually value our education, Davis," the purple-haired girl sitting next to him commented.

"And what is that supposed to mean?!"

"Guys, arguing isn't going to solve anything," T.K. interjected. Davis huffed and crossed her arms, back turned to Yolei. She snickered to herself.

"Focus!" Izzy called out. "I'm sending an email to Gennai. He may be able to help." The room went quiet, the only sounds were the tapping of computer keys. Within a few moments of the uncomfortable silence, an animation of the Obi-Wan Kenobe look-alike, a.k.a Gennai's younger self, walked onto the computer screen and stopped in the middle, a letter in hand.

"I'm glad you emailed Izzy, I have something I needed to show you digidestined," the figure said. The letter opened itself and Gennai continued to speak. "Centaurumon delivered this to me earlier. It's either a new prophecy, or he recently took up poetry. **_As it has happened before, an old foe shall return once more. With a greater evil and strengthened might, he seeks his vengeance upon the light. When night comes where there once was day, a fearsome battle will be waged. But aid will come to the chosen few, and they will fight with strength renewed. But first they must save one soul, victim of events of long ago. Then they must seek where darkness hides, to save the one they want to find. And when the battle finally begins, evil will strive for an early win. When hope of winning is completely lost, an ancient power will be unlocked. To end it forever they must find a way, to keep the evil from returning someday._**"

"But what does it mean, Gennai?" asked Izzy.

"How should I know? I'm only the messenger, but Centarumon did tell me something else to relay on you kids, sort of a hint."

"What is it?"

"Look to the past." And without another word, Gennai's icon quietly walked off-screen. Izzy slumped back, deep in thought.

"Man, I hate riddles!" Davis whined, but the other digidestined payed him no mind, causing him to fall backwards onto his back in frustration and confusion.

Kari slowly stood and walked to Izzy's side, carefully reading the text. "The part about the one we want to find," she said, "could that mean Gatomon?"

"Probably, I mean, who else are we looking for?"

Kari frowned. "So she is in trouble."

"Don't worry Kari, she can take care of herself. I mean, it's not like _Myotismon's_ back again," her brother told her.

"Oh Tai, but what if it is Myotismon? What if he found a way to come back again and catnapped poor little Gatomon? The prophecy did say an old foe will return once more, it has to be him." Tai didn't have much of response to that, regretting he had even mentioned the vampire. Face a little pale, he hurriedly came up with an answer.

"Erm--um, why don't I go help the others look around town?" And with that, he rushed out the door.

"That's actually a good idea. Why don't you guys go along?" Izzy said. Muttering comments of the recent events, the kids filed out of the room to pick up their shoes and go out to look. "Wait a minute T.K." The white-hatted boy paused before he walked out the door. "I need your help with something."

Gatomon pushed herself off the cold stone floor, hearing a slight cracking. She grimaced at the caked blood on her side. Her first instinct was to scratch the dry mass off her side, which would undoubtedly make the wound even worse. She'd finally awoken herself from the nightmares, which had managed to make themselves even worse. This time Wizardmon had teamed up with Myotismon, and well, let's just say it was a rather _violent_ dream. She missed her friend so much, but now Gatomon realized something positive. He may be gone, but at least Myostismon couldn't hurt him.

"Gomamon's always saying to look to the bright side," she mused. With a loud, obnoxious snort, the guard awoke. He sleepily eyed her, probably roused by the sudden outburst, blinked a few times and immediately went back to sleep.

_Just as incompetent as ever,_ she scoffed. The key rested on the floor, three, maybe four, feet away. She glanced at her tail. _Maybe..._ Pressing her back to the bars, Gatomon stretched her tail out in the keys direction. A waved of reassurance washed over her as gold hit iron. Inserting the tuft into the loop, Gatomon pulled her tail back into the cell and picked up the key, grinning to herself.

Oh how she loved incompetence!

"Okay Izzy, why are we up here?" T.K. asked, standing on the breezeway of his father's place of employment.

Tapping away on his computer as usual Izzy didn't even bother to look at him as he responded. "I have a theory I want to test out."

"Should've known." He stared a few moments at the panoramic view of the city, then turned back to the older digidestined. "So what's this theory of yours?"

"You know how the D3s have the power to open the digiport?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I think they may be able to project energy directly from the Digital World as well."

"That still doesn't doesn't explain why we're all the way up here. I mean, couldn't we have tested your theory in the apartment?"

"No," was the simple reply. T.K. sighed, concluding he wasn't going to get any answers out of Izzy at the moment. Meanwhile, Izzy was still busily typing on the keyboard. After a few complex key combinations he pressed 'enter', but unfortunately, nothing happened. He pouted and tried again, typing in new command keys.

"Why do you need my help anyway? Why not Cody or Yolei, they understand this stuff more than I do."

"If this does work, which I hope it does, only you and Kari would have an idea what was going one. Which is much easier than explaining everything, and Kari's a bit too emotional to deal with at the moment."

T.K. smiled. "Well, I've got you covered in the hope department." If Izzy did reply to that, he didn't hear it. The computer-whiz was still hard at work trying to program his laptop to preform a difficult task, but then something happened. A window opened up, showing a view of the television station, but there was a curious blue patch on the screen.

"Prodigius!"

T.K. walked over to Izzy and looked over at the screen. "What happened? And what is that?" He took to wary glance at the space before them, but there was nothing where the blue spot on the screen indicated.

"I've programmed my computer to show things that cannot be viewed with the naked eye. T.K., I need you to point your D3 in the direction of this blue icon."

"But what..?"

"You'll see."

Still unsure, T.K. pulled the device out of his pocket and pointed it at, as it appeared to him, nothing. A blinding beam of light raced from his D3 and washed over the area. When it faded, the thing shown only on the laptop was now visible.

T.K.'s eyes went wide. "Is that..."

"Part one of the prophecy is now complete."


	4. How Many Ways

Just a side note, not important to the story, so you can skip this if you want. Anyway, I've noticed that so far that I've gotten one review for chapter 1, two for chapter 2, and three for chapter 3. Weird huh? If I get four for this one I'll be officially freaked out. Anyway, thanks to all who have reviewed so far, you're support is greatly appreciated, now on with the fic!

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T.K. took a nervous step back. Standing before him with an expression just as confused as his own, was Wizardmon. The digital mage stared down at his gloved hands like they were something totally new to him. All those years of being a ghost, suddenly, he was... alive. He turned to the digidestined.

"So this was his plan," T.K. muttered to himself.

"Izzy. T.K. I supposed this is your doing." The unsurprised boy nodded. "Well, I thank you very much for bringing me back, but my assumptions tell me that this return isn't under casual circumstances."

"I'm afraid not. Gennai delivered this to us earlier today. It's a prophecy." Pulling the text back onto the screen, he turned his laptop around to face Wizardmon, who walked closer to read the inscription.

"I see, and I was the one it told you to help. How much else have you figured out?"

"Not much. Gatomon's been missing since yesterday, so we assume she's the one we want to find. And Tai was joking about the villain being Myotismon, but he may actually be right."

Wizardmon sighed. "He is. There's no doubt in my mind that he found a way to return yet again and kidnapped Gatomon for revenge. Then, once he's gathered enough power, he'll block out the sun and the battle will begin."

"Wow," T.K. commented. "You sure figured that out quickly."

"If you'd worked for that vampire as long as I had, you'd know too," he replied with a grim humor in his voice. "I fear that's about all I know. The rest will surely reveal itself in time."

"But how much time do we have?" Izzy asked."

"Um, guys, shouldn't we tell the others all this? I mean, this is a major change of events."

"Good point T.K., I'll email everyone and ask them to meet in the park ASAP."

-------

"Sorry I'm late guys!" Davis said, running up to where everyone and their digimon, except Mimi, still in America, but Palmon was there, had already assembled. He paused, desperately trying to catch his breath.

"When are you ever on time?" Yolei teased. "Let's just start the meeting."

"Wait guys, T.K.'s not here," Matt pointed out.

"See, I'm not the only one!"

"Actually, I asked T.K. to come in a little ways into the meeting, he already knows what this is about," Izzy replied.

"Then tell the rest of us already!" Tai impatiently commanded.

"Well, as all of you are, or should be aware, we have been given a new prophecy, which is already in effect." Kari quietly sighed at this. "But what you don't know is T.K. and I have already deciphered part of this prophecy. The part about the soul we have to save."

"Really, who is it?" Cody asked. Izzy nodded at something behind everyone. The digidestined and digimon all turned around to find T.K. walking towards them, and he wasn't alone.

"Wizardmon!" Kari cried out, the first time she'd been happy since her partner's disappearance. She ran up and hugged the digimon, giving him his second shock of the day.

"Hello Kari," he said with an unseen smile. Kari pulled away from the digimon and turned to Izzy.

"How'd you you bring him back?"

"It was simple really," the young genius replied. "Since the D3s hold the power to open the digiports, they must have other powers pertaining the digital world, right? I calculated that by projecting the same energy used to open the gates, the D3 could return the lost data of a digimon that died to it's original state, ultimately bringing them back to life." The younger kids, not completely sure as to what was going on, stared on silently until Yolei decided to speak up.

"Aren't you that ghost dude we saw?" she asked Wizardmon. He nodded.

"He doesn't look like a ghost..." Ken mumbled, probably the most clueless out of all of them. Everyone stared at him for a few moments.

"Oh, right! You we're still evil when that happened," Kari said. "I almost forgot. Wizardmon is an old friend of Gatomon... Oh, you're going to help us find her right?"

"Oh course, she's as much my friend as she is yours."

Kari smiled brightly and continued to explain Wizardmon's story to Ken, also filling in some details for the three other digidestined who only knew the very sketchy details Sora told them when his ghost appeared.

-------

In a darken corridor, a small white figure could be briefly seen before she darted around the corner, disturbing the various ghostly guards, who felt discovering the source of the white streak was a complete waste of their time. Suddenly, Gatomon slid to a halt, faced with a pair of black boots, one decorated with a skull, and the other, a bat. She spun around and tried the run, but Myotismon caught her by the tail and hoisted the feline up into the air so they were face-to-face.

Gatomon hissed, eyes back to mere slits.

"I must admit, it was a lot easier to track down escapees when Demidevimon was around. I'm almost sorry I devoured that little fool as Venommyotismon." He chuckled to himself, clearly amused. "However, I'm not quite done with you yet, my former servant. You see, you are here to lure the digidestined, your punishment for betraying me will only be a bonus. Once they arrive, I'll give them the pleasure of seeing you destroyed, before I end their own insignificant existence." Gatomon brought her paw forward, managing to give him a sharp clip across the cheek. Off guard, he dropped Gatomon, who in a true cat fashion, landed on her feet and ran for her life.

Myotismon wiped his hand against the scar, looking at the red blood contrasting against his grey gloves, and laughed. "This should prove most interesting." With a snap of his fingers, the silhouettes of three Devidramon appeared behind him, low growls emanating from each of their throats. Without looking at them them, Myotismon barked his order. "Bring the little traitor to me." The demon dragons swopped off in a flurry of black wings.

Gatomon ran faster, hearing their bloodthirsty roars, and praying that they wouldn't catch up. Her prayers fell on death ears as the trio of digimon rounded the corner, the updraft from the wings causing her to loose balance and topple over onto the floor. She covered her face to avoid the hypnotic stare of their four eyes as she felt the hot breath of one of the Devidramon baring down onto her small body. Blood red claws wrapped around her body and they took off again, retracing their path back to Myotismon, who was waiting anxiously. Gatomon was dropped to the floor, the Devidramon now blocking any possible escape routes.

"Okay bats-for-brains, you got me. Now what?"

"Now," he replied, "we shall find out how many ways there are, to skin a cat."


	5. Unexpected Guests

Myotismon grinned in satisfaction as his former slave dropped to her knees in a pool of her own blood, bruises and open skin wounds decorating the soft white fur.

"I'm impressed, Gatomon," he remarked. "I've never seen you hold against my punishment this long before." He looked down at her form, shivering with pain. "I guess those filthy humans haven't totally corrupted you." Her eyes shot up at him, full of hatred.

"Or maybe you're just loosing you touch," she spat, pushing herself to a painful standing position. The vampire's whip struck the ground a few inches from her feet, knocking her over in surprise.

"Remember whose holding all the cards before you make another comment like that." He gestured to one of the Bakemon, who quietly floated over and handed him something. "Here," Myotismon tossed a roll of bandages at Gatomon, which landed by her paws, soaking in the lost blood, "we wouldn't want you to die on us, not just yet." She glowered as he left the room, but scooped up the stained cloth, tearing off the bloody part with her claws and letting it fall to the floor. She ripped off another strip and gently wrapped it around a particularly bad cut on her left arm. One of the Bakemon snickered, and she tossed the discarded bandage at him, which adhered itself to his forehead. Bakemon's eyes traveled towards one another as he stared at the bloody bandage, what little color in his complexion draining to nothing. The next moment he was flailing around the room, squirming at the fact her blood was on him, another one trying to calm him down long enough to remove the article. Gatomon snorted at the stupidity as she continued to tend to her wounds. She finished covering up her cuts and bruises and tossed the spool over her shoulder, purposely beaming a ghost in the head. Seeing she was done, the guards came over and led her back into the dungeon. Gatomon silently went along with them, too weak to protest at the moment.

She was shoved into the cell, wincing as the Bakemon neglected to avoid her injuries. The scar-eyed one stayed behind, red streaks on his face from where she had pulled him into the bars. He cringed under her withering stare and turned his back to the cage to avoid her gaze. Gatomon smirked, pleased that she was still feared amongst the servants. She sat down on a small mattress practically shoved in the corner, back resting on the wall.

_Looks like I have some cards of my own._

---

The group of junior digidestined and digimon had traveled to a remote sector of the Digital World. Silently they crept through the darkened woods, under the guide of the newly revived Wizardmon, who was leading them to Myotismon's back-up headquarters, since his castle had been demolished after his arrival in the real world. Around the group of twelve, trees rustled ominously and red eyes peered out from the shadows. A black crow suddenly launched out of the darkness, feathers in a flurry and screeching angrily. Yolei screamed and clung to Ken's side, while Patamon, perched on T.K.'s head, managed to aim his Boom Bubble at the bird, scaring it off.

"It's gone Yolei," Ken said calmly, smiling at her.

She opened her tightly clamped eyes and looked about. "Uh, I knew that." She hugged Ken a little tighter. "Thank you for protecting me, Kenny!" she cooed before letting go. "Isn't he the greatest?"

Patamon huffed. "It was _my_ Boom Bubble." Ken laughed a little, blushing while rubbing the back of his neck.

"I didn't do that much..."

"Will you two lovebirds knock it off!" Davis yelled.

"Jealous?" Yolei snickered. Davis glowered at her, but thankfully their leader interrupted with a shush. Wizardmon paused and looked around.

"We're being watched," he said.

"No kidding,"Cody replied, casting a worried glance at the many pairs of demonic eyes staring at them, but he didn't receive a response to that comment. Wizardmon stepped back suddenly and mouthed several magic words. Immediately, in a puff of smoke, his sun staff slid into his hand. He swung it around and struck a defensive pose towards the unseen enemy.

"Woah, how'd you do that?" T.K. asked.

"I am a wizard, am I not?"

"Wizardmon look out!" He dodged a sudden attack from a giant red claw. Two Devidramon crept out of hiding with menacing snarls baring their teeth. The one who didn't attack roared and swung it's tail out at the digidestined, who scurried out of the way just in time.

"We gotta digivolve!" Veemon said, ducking as the tail swung over his head.

"Right!" the digimon agreed. Their partners began to pull out their digivices, prepared for battle.

"No, don't digivolve. They aren't real."

"Look pretty real to me," Davis challenged, completely ready for a fight.

"No, he's right," Ken said. "There's no way that two Devidramon could attack like this without any of the forest being demolished." The others looked around, and saw his point. As much as the demon dragons had been thrashing around, none of the closely huddled trees had the slightest mark on them. "And notice how only one attacks at a time. The real thing would continue to fight until someone was defeated, not take turns."

"Then explain how these scratch marks got into the ground," Yolei said, pointing at several furrows that rested before their feet, none of which were there before the attack.

"Someone must be attacking from the shadows, and using the Devidramon as a distraction," Wizardmon explained, dodging the claws again. "We should probably avoid their attacks anyway."

"So where are our attackers?" Kari asked as she slid out of the way of the illusion's tail, synchronized with a real attack. Just as she spoke, the other Devidramon opened it's mouth, preparing for a breath attack.

"We're about to find out. Thunderball!" Wizardmon answered, throwing his attack into it's open mouth, which just as he predicted, soared right through the beast's head. A crash and a thud resounded from the darkness and slowly the Devidramon began to fade away.

"Whose the wise guy playing tricks?!" Yolei growled, fists shaking angrily in the air.

"I doubt they're up there," her partner replied.

"Over here!" Armadillo called from the direction of wherever the attack had been hiding. Cody pulled back the high grasses in order to see what was behind just as the others came over. Lying huddled up in the grass with a good sized bruise on it's head was the little brown Tapirmon, whimpering as the larger beings converged on him.

"Please don't delete me, I was only following my master's orders!" he whined, trying to cover his head with his small hooves.

"Aw yes, a Tapirmon. Crafty little rookie digimon who are masters of nightmares and illusions," Hawkmon explained. "They aren't very strong in hand-to-hand combat, so they resort into tricking opponents into submission."

"You mean THIS little thing was causing so much trouble!" Yolei called out, pointing an accusing finger at the poor digimon. In response he buried his face deeper. Kari, always sympathetic, came closer to the Tapirmon, frowning at how scared the creature was.

"He doesn't seem that bad." Surprised, his fan-like ears twitched and his face came back into view, astonishment washing over the boar's features as he stared at Kari, who smiled back in a calming way.

"It's you," he merely stated, "the one my master tried to kill years ago."

"What!" Davis yelled out, grabbing the Tapirmon by his forelimbs and roughly shaking the digimon back and forth. "You mean to say you work for Myotismon? Huh? Answer me!" On answer me, he began to shake him even harder, making a response nearly impossible, especially in his already dazed state.

"Davis, you're not helping," Ken told him.

"But he won't answer me," Davis said, but he did stop shaking Tapirmon long enough for him to say something.

"Yes, I do work for Lord Myotismon. Now please put me down." He added the last part with a meek and helpless voice. The goggle-wearing boy released his grip, and he plummeted to the ground.

"Okay, now tell us what he's planning, and how he returned!" Davis demanded.

"I do not know of how he reconfigured his data."

"But what about his plans?"

"I don't know that either."

"Liar!" Davis exclaimed, pulling him off the ground once again. "tell us what his plans are now!"

Tapirmon whimpered again. "I don't know, honest! He-he never reveals his plans to lowly servants like myself."

The shaking began again. "Yes you do! Stop withholding information."

"He's telling the truth." Both froze in place and slowly turned to the voice. Wizardmon adjusted his hat before replying. "Myotismon rarely divulged the true nature of his actions to those working under him until he was close to achieving his goal. The only ones who could ever really figure out what his schemes were Gatomon and myself."

"I thought you were dead!" Tapirmon proclaimed, now noticing Wizardmon for the first time.

"Let him go," Wizardmon told Davis, completely disregarding the last statement. "There's nothing we can gain from holding onto him." Davis shrugged and let him go. Tapirmon immediately scurried away into the shadows until he was out of sight.

"Where do you suppose he's going?" Wormmon asked.

"Probably back to Myotismon. He was only sent out here to deter any trespassers who may come along, but now he's bound to warn his master of our arrival. I only hope we came before he finished whatever he was plotting."

"So what is he plotting anyway?" T.K. asked. "You said you and Gatomon could usually figure it out."

"Revenge. He plans to get back at you digidestined. As for kidnapping Gatomon, he always knew that we could figure him out, so with her out of the way, you all would be completely clueless. Plus, he could get back at her for her betrayal, but he won't do anything serious until we come. That's his special way of making people suffer, forcing them to watch someone they care about being hurt." He subtilely clenching his fists, remembering the times he'd personally experienced that emotional form of torture. "But what he didn't count on was me."

"But won't Tapirmon tell him of you're return?"

"Probably, but the point is, he's not expecting it. The surprise will most likely throw his plans off slightly. We have a slight advantage."

---

Tapirmon crept into a large cage in the middle of the dark forest, quietly floating down the corridor. Lanterns flickered on as he progressed down the hall, till he reached a huge door. The vaccine digimon quietly knocked, greeted with a cold 'Enter.' He gulped and using all his strength, pushed open the massive door just enough for him to slip in. It slammed shut behind him. The room was cold and empty, consisting only of a few torches, which barely illuminated the space. A table rested to the side of a large chair, where his master was sitting, only the tips of his oversized cowl peeking over the top. The vampire had his back to Tapirmon, facing a large screen which had a crude digital map of the forest displayed, twelve red blips slowly moving to the right of the screen, where the cave was displayed.

"So, who are our unexpected visitors?"

"The younger digidestined and their partners, my lord."

"And I see you ceased to stop them."

He cringed and bowed. "I apologize my lord, they saw through my illusion."

He spun around and leaned forward and Tapirmon saw the fire raging in his icy blue eyes "Unacceptable! You're illusion just wasn't effective enough!"

Tapirmon pushed himself lower to the ground, his breath blowing up dust from the dirt floor, threatening to make him sneeze. "I'm sorry! You are absolutely correct, Master. I just didn't train hard enough."

Myotismon calmed himself, leaning back into the chair. "Well, see that you do. Since you failed you're mission, I'm still not quite ready to confront them yet. I'll just have to find a way to occupy our 'guests' until the time is right. You are dismissed, Tapirmon."

"Yes Master," he said, pushing himself off of the ground in order to leave. He grasped the handle and strained to pull the great door open.

"Oh, by the way. Who is the twelfth member of their group, since one of them is missing her partner?"

Tapirmon froze in place. "No one, just some random digimon they must have picked up along the way," he answered before slipping out.

---

A quick note on Wizardmon's staff. This is just a theory of mine, but I believe he has the ability to conjure it up at will. Just look at episode 34. One scene he doesn't have it with him, but the next, he does. I doubt he had time to make a stop and pick it up. He must have hidden it away again when he fell into the water because something like that would get in the way. And the reason he didn't have in in episode 37, when they confronted Myotismon was because he was too weak from the previous battle and nearly drowning to summon up enough energy to retrieve it. As a ghost he didn't have any of his powers to bring his staff back (plus there wasn't really any need for it)

Okay, that's out of the way, so please review guys! This chapter was harder to write than the others, so I made it longer to apologize for making you wait.


	6. The Reason

Loud snores emanated from the dungeon, filling the nearby hallway with noise. Gatomon clamped her paws over her eyes and cast a dark look at Bakemon, who had once again drifted off to sleep.

"He's worse than Tai!" she proclaimed, surprised anything could be worse than Tai's snoring. Over the noise, she didn't hear the door creak open, and with her eyes shut tight, she didn't see Tapirmon slowly creep into the room. He poked the inflating and deflating snot bubble Bakemon had formed in his sleep, popping it and waking at ghost. Gatomon lifted her paws and opened her eyes at the cease of the dreaded noise.

"Look, I'll handle guard duty now, get some rest. Oh, and if you see the master, tell him this is my punishment for myself for failing his orders."

"Uh, sure," Bakemon answered, drifting out the room. Tapirmon watched him leave and sat down on the floor in front of Gatomon's cell.

"What do _you_ want?" she hissed.

At first he was taken aback by her harshness, but he swallowed up the feeling and spoke back. "Listen, you probably don't trust me, and I don't expect you too, but I have something important to tell you. Your friends, the younger digidestined, are on their way here right now. They should arrive shortly."

"Why should I believe you? I never told them where this base was hidden, so they shouldn't even be here."

"Just hear me out first. I don't know what he's planning, but whatever it is Myotismon isn't quite ready for their arrival. There's a chance you all can make it out of this situation, _alive_."

"I'm listening."

"I haven't worked out all the details, but I'm going to find a way to get you out of here. You stood up against the master and lived, now it's my turn. I going to do some scouting and maybe then I can formulate a plan. I'll be back as soon as I can," he assured her, floating out tot he door.

"Wait!" She called out, pushing off from her sitting position, wobbling awkwardly.

"You should get some sleep. You're lost a lot of blood and must be tired. Don't worry, I'll take care of everything."

"At least tell me how they got here," she said, sitting back down on her scruffy old mattress.

He paused, looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. "If I told you, I doubt you'd get any sleep. You'll find out later."

---

Tapirmon floated through the hideout, careful to avoid any of his fellow henchmen. He pressed his back to a vacant wall, glancing about to make sure no one was watching. Tapping his arm band against a lone brick, the wall suddenly spun around and he was faced to a brand new corridor. He glanced about again in pure paranoia, though no one but himself knew of this passageway. Tapirmon crept down the hallway, thankful for his own ability to see in darkness as his path continued to descend further into the dark. His paw hit a step and he began to climb again until he found a trapdoor just above his head.

He pushed it up and light radiated into the dark tunnel. Tapirmon poked his head up, careful to stay mostly underground until he found what he was looking for.

"Pst!" he whispered. A large orange wing-like ear twitched and the head of it's owner turned to Tapirmon.

"Hey T.K., look." Patamon told his partner.

"Hm?" T.K. questioned looking up at the digimon perched on his white hat. He turned in the direction Patamon was facing to notice Tapirmon's small head peeking out. "Hey guys, he's back." The other children at digimon stopped and turned around. Tapirmon beckoned them forward and disappeared to his tunnel. Shrugging, the digidestined came up to the hole at stared into it, until Davis and Veemon finally jumped down into it, tumbling down the stairs that were put there for a reason.

"We're okay!" they called up. The group sighed and descended to the tunnel, this time using the steps.

---

"What!" Myotismon yelled, leaning forward in his chair. He stared in anger as, one-by-one, the red blips on his map of the forest disappeared.

---

"What is this place? It's too dark to see," Veemon asked, rubbing his sore head.

"Oh, sorry." Tapirmon floated up to one of the torches and lit it. All the other ones decorating the hall sprang to life, illuminating the space. "This is a secret tunnel under the forest. It connects straight to the hideout. Not even Myotismon knows of it, so it doesn't show up on his radar," Tapirmon explained.

"Radar?" Veemon questioned again.

Wizardmon spoke up. "He has radar on this entire forest, except for inside the hideout. When any intruder appears, they will show up as a red blip on a map of the forest in his throne room. No doubt he's been tracking our moves until this point."

"Right, but now we should be able to sneak into his base, undetected." He turned his back to the children and began to progress up the slightly slanted walkway, digidestined in tow.

As the came towards a dead-end, Tapirmon stopped.

"I only need Wizardmon to come with me, the rest of you stay put." Davis opened his mouth to protest, but Yolei swung her hand around and covered his mouth, giving Tapirmon a thumbs-up.

"This isn't the time," she warned him. Tapirmon nodded and came up to the wall that blocked their path, whispering something to Wizardmon. The sorcerer nodded and made another hand sign just as Tapirmon swung the trapdoor around.

"I thought you were going to disguise yourself!" Tapirmon whispered when they where back in plain site.

"I just set up the illusion. To you I'm still Wizardmon, but to anyone else I appear to be just another Bakemon."

"How does that even work?"

"A magician never gives away his secrets," Wizardmon told him.

"But you're a wizard."

He shrugged. "Either way, now how do we get to the dungeon from here? I don't quite remember my way around after all these years."

"It's this way, just follow me." And with that, the two digimon casually went down the corridor so as to not arouse suspicion.

"Have you spoken to Gatomon?"

"Yes, just before I brought you guys here. I told her the digidestined we're coming for her, but she doesn't know how they got here. basically, I told her everything except for you're return. She needed to get some rest after Myotismon dealt with her for nearly escaping. I didn't want the news keeping her awa--."

"Hey Tapirmon!" someone interrupted.

He froze. _We've been discovered!_

"The master wants to see you now. It's urgent," a Bakemon floating down the hall told him.

He let out a short breath. "Can you get to dungeon on your own from here?" he whispered so only Wizardmon could hear. He nodded. "Okay, I'll be there as fast as I can." Tapirmon left for the thrown room, leaving Wizardmon alone with the Bakemon.

"Hm, I don't remember seeing you around before. Are you new?"

"Yes, I was just recruited last week, down by Infinity Mountain," he bluffed, reading the Bakemon's mind first to get the details.

"Oh right, I almost forgot. Well, carry on." He nodded and continued to make his way to the hall, stopping at a fork. Wizardmon looked down both paths, then took the left, hoping his memory of the place was still accurate. He took another left and there before him in black letters was 'Dungeon.' Wizardmon pushed open the door and descended into a seemingly empty room.

Then he saw her. Gatomon was lying in the back on the first cell asleep, covered in stained bandages and bruises. Angry at the vampire for what he did to her, Wizardmon took the key off of the small table and unlocked the cage. Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of the rusty door swinging open, but what she saw was a Bakemon hovering here with the key in his hand.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Wizardmon stared in confusion until he remembered the illusion was still up. "Tapirmon brought me here."

She blinked at the familiarity of his voice, but brushed it away. _It can't be. _"So where is he?"

"Myotismon summoned him, so I had to come alone. He told me you wanted to know how the digidestined found this hideout."

"You know?"

"I'm the reason they're here." And saying those words, he dropped the illusion.


	7. Treachery

Sorry, I wanted post this Wednesday, but Fanfiction didn't want t upload the file, plus I've been out of town on an Orchestra trip since Thursday.

---

"Wizardmon? Is it really you?"

"In the flesh, no nightmares or Bakemon illusions involved." Gatomon smiled and rushed up to greet him, but in her weakened state, she stumbled over. Wizardmon leaned forward and caught her and Gatomon wrapped her arms around him.

"Only the real Wizardmon wold dare read my mind," she whispered in his ear, tears of joy running down her furry cheeks.

Wizardmon stood, the cat still held gently in his arms "How many guards come down here?"

"None, actually. Originally it was just that dumb Bakemon with the scar, but Tapirmon came and took over guard duty. No one else will come around, I think I still scare them, plus I wasn't being all too pleasant earlier. Why?"

"I'm going to get you out of here."

---

Tapirmon stood, as the door slammed behind him, in Myotismon's study. The virus was still sitting with the back of the chair facing the rookie.

"Tapirmon, would you happen to have any explanation to this?"

"To what, Master?"

"To the fact that twelve blips suddenly disappeared from my map in the middle of the forest?"Tapirmon gulped but replied in a tone that made him seem completely oblivious. "Is that even possible?" Myotismon rocked the chair slightly to the left, but didn't turn around. He tried to think of a good reason to how they could've escaped and all that came to mind was one word: illusion.

"Could it be that a certain rookie-level vaccine under my employment could used an illusion to sneak past my defenses and bring the enemy here, all to get rid of me?"

"No, Master, I-I would never!" Tapirmon gasped sweat trickling down his face rapidly. "I couldn't do such such a thing, never to you."

"Hmm," Myotismon replied, considering his words. "You're right, a weak, simple-minded fool like yourself could never come up with a strategy as smart as this one, or have enough power or guts to pull it off." He paused and Tapirmon let out a huge breath he'd been holding. "I want to you go and find out where they're hiding, and report back to me the moment you do."

"Yes, Master," he replied, saluting the ultimate and scurried out the door before he could say anything else.

Myotismon turned his chair in a ninety degree angle and stared into a corner where no light reached. "I want you to follow him," he spoke and a voice from the shadows answered.

"I understand, my lord."

---

Gatomon had dozed off again, still lightheaded, but wasn't too keen on waking up this time.

What if it had been a dream? The first pleasant dream she'd had since this ordeal started, but a dream none the less. For all she knew, Gatomon could still be sitting in that cell.

But then she felt two arms holding her close, keeping her safe, protecting her from harm. It was no dream, he was really back. She opened her eyes and looked up at Wizardmon, giving him a slight smile. He looked down at her, and even though his mouth was covered, she knew he returned it.

"I see you're awake."

"Yeah," she answered sleepily, "where are we?"

"We're almost where your friends are hiding. The illusion's back up so everyone will think I'm just a Bakemon holding some books."

"Isn't that a bit suspicious? I mean, Bakemon don't read."

"You don't have to be intelligent to hold a book. If we're confronted, I'll just say somebody asked me to fetch them for them, but hopefully it won't come to that," Wizardmon replied, stopping. Gatomon shrugged and shifted her gaze to where they had paused. "I wish Tapirmon had shown me how to open the passage," he mumbled, staring at a brick wall. Picking out a brick that slightly stood out from the others, he tapped it and the whole wall swung around. Wizardmon dropped the illusion once more as it turned.

"You found her!" Kari cried out, giving both digimon a huge hug.

"Watch it Kari! I'm still sore!" Gatomon protested. Wizardmon set her down and everyone gasped at all her injuries. "It's nothing," Gatomon assured them.

"Nothing? Gatomon, you're covered in bruises ad bloody bandages!"

"Forget it Kari, she always denies her injuries," Wizardmon answered.

"Hey, where's Tapirmon? Didn't he come back with you guys?" Cody asked. As if on cue, the wall swung around and Tapirmon rushed in, frantic.

"We need to get out now!" he yelled, arms waving about in a mad flurry.

"What are you blabbering about?" Hawkmon asked.

"Myotismon suspects that you digidestined are in the castle, I never told him about Wizardmon, but you all are in danger! He sent me to find you and report back to him when I did, so I have to get you guys out," he explained, brushing past them. "This way, hurry." Gatomon stumbled a bit and Kari picked up her hurt partner, despite the feline's quiet protests that she was fine.

The twelve followed down the corridor, but then they reached the steps, which lead right up to the forest, and back under his radar.

"Now what? If we go back up, he'll know our location." Armadillomon asked, staring up at the steps, but tapirmon provided a quick answer as he pulled down one of the torches. The stairs lifted and flattened themselves along the ceiling.

"Quickly," Tapirmon order, ushering the kids and digimon past him into the new tunnel.

"Ah, so here you are."

Tapirmon spun around, his face drained of all color. "Ph-Phantomon?"

"It seems the master was right to suspect you of treachery. Looks like he'll have _two_ traitors to dispose of," the scythe toting specter commented, not quite noticing Wizardmon.

"I though I destroyed him," Patamon muttered, confused.

"Tapirmon!" T.K. called out. The boar-like digimon turned to the digidestined.

"Don't worry, you kids and your partners are next on the list," Phantomon told them.

"Get out of here!" Tapirmon yelled at the kids.

"But he'll kill you," Kari replied, worry in her voice. He stared at her, surprised that she even cared about her safety. After all, he worked for the very digimon who wanted to kill her years ago and her partner just recently. "Don't worry about me! Just get out. My life isn't important, but yours' are!" he yelled, launching himself at the upside-down torch, turning it upwards again. Instantly, the stairs began to descend again, separating the digidestined from tapirmon and Phantomon.

"Tapirmon!" Kari cried out again as the gap between then was nearly filled.

"Goodbye, Digidestined," he said before they were completely cut off.


	8. A Light In A Darkened Hideout

Tapirmon let out a short breath, his forearms shackled tightly to a wall that suspended him about thrice his height off the ground.

"Of all my servants, I never suspected you, Tapirmon, to turn traitor."

"Well, you didn't expect Gatomon to betray you either, we see how accurate your judgement is," Tapirmon replied, forcing out a cocky smile that was immediately wiped off as Myotismon's Crimson Lightning attack struck him right on the symbol of his helmet. He shook it off, head throbbing with pain.

"You should be begging for mercy right now, not making smart comments," Myotismon warned him. Tapirmon snorted.

The virus vampire sighed. "What happened Tapirmon? I thought you _enjoyed_ serving me."

"No, I hated it. Just like Gatomon, you didn't give me a choice. I was captured at a young age and forced to work for you! Well guess what? I've had it, I'm done being you're minion. And I don't care if I die here, at least I can rest knowing that the Digidestined are free from your clutches, as am I free of your control." And saying those words, he held his head high, completely ready to be silenced.

But Myotismon only glared at him. "Your end will come soon enough, but first, I think I'll dispose of those meddlesome children." Shock rushed into Tapirmon's body. "Come Phantomon, we have unfinished business. Oh, and Tapirmon. Don't even think of trying one of your silly little illusions, it won't work." He laughed and the two ultimates excused themselves from the room.

_They're still in danger! _Tapirmon screamed in his head, frantically pulling at the chains that bound him to no avail. He paused, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. The symbol on his forehead, a small golden circle with an arc with four points to the left and right, began to glow. A dark mist crept out from the symbol, branched off into two streams, and crawled it's way into the keyhole of each shackle. The cufflinks unlocked and Tapirmon dropped to the floor.

"Now who said a thing about illusions?"

---

"I hope Tapirmon's okay," Yolei muttered, running down the corridor.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Ken assured her.

"He's right, Tapirmon's a tough digimon, I can tell. He just doesn't act it," Wormmon added. She smiled at Ken and his partner. They always had a way of being right about these things.

"Come on guys, stop dallying and hurry up. Phantomon could come after us at any moment!" Davis called behind his shoulder, right before crashing into a wall due to looking in the wrong direction. He looked up from his position, seated on the ground, and noticed a rusted handle hanging down form the ceiling. "This must be the way out!" He looked out about, noticed wooden planks nailed to the wall like stairs and began to climb.

Davis reached up and pushed open the hatch, light radiated down the tunnel. "Woo-hoo! We're home free!" He pushed himself out of the hole, shortly followed by Veemon, then the rest of the Digidestined and Wizardmon.

"Whew! We've finally escaped," Armadillomon exclaimed, rolling over onto the soft grass.

"Oh really? Have you know?" questioned a familiar voice.

They all spun around. "Myotismon! Phantomon!"

"Did you really think it would be that easy to get away from me, children? And Gatomon, you've been lucky so far," he said, directed his attention to Gatomon, still held by Kari, "but you shall not escape a-" Myotismon froze in mid-word, noticing for the first time the mon standing right beside them. "Wizardmon?! You're not supposed to be alive!"

"Surprised to see me? Well, I have you to thank for my prolonged death."

"What's he talking about, Davis?" Veemon questioned, tugging at the boy's pant leg.

"How should I know?"

"Digimon can never really die, no matter where they are, that's why Phantomon is here, and you knew that Myotismon."

"That's right. When I planned to kill Gatomon and the eighth Digidestined those many years ago, I knew the girl would be gone forever, but her partner would return someday, I didn't want that happening, especially after she turned against me. That's why, when I sent my final attack, the attack _meant_ to kill them, I designed it especially to keep any digimon it hit trapped in the real world, with no way of returning to the digital world to be reborn. But you go in the way of that, so you shouldn't be here!"

"Never underestimate the power of good, Dracula," Yolei teased, sticking her tongue out to him.

"Insolent human, you will be the first to die. Phantomon!"

"Yes, my lord," the phantom answered, swinging his scythe forward as he charged head-on at Yolei.

---

_I've got to find them!_ thought Tapirmon as he bounded down the hallway in a hurry, hoping to reach the digidestined before **he** did.

"Hey you, Tapirmon! Aren't you supposed to be locked up in the dungeon?" Tapirmon froze, faced with a Bakemon that was eying him suspiciously.

"Uh... no? That's the _other_ Tapirmon." The ghost blinked, shrugged it off and kept on his merry way. "There's a reason Bakemon sounds so similar to baka," he sighed under his breath. He kept going until something caught his eye.

A light in the middled of a darkened hideout?

Curious, he strayed off his path for a moment to pursue the strange item. Following the light into a new room, he spied something strange and glowing sitting on the desk, under a glass case. He carefully removed the glass, peering at the strange object, but at the instant he got a good look at it, he knew what it was. Tapirmon glanced about, then snatched it from the table and ran.

---

Yolei screamed as the scythe swung down towards her, but a connection was never made. She looked up to find herself shelter by Aquilamon, his horns locked with Phantomon's weapon. Phantomon glared and swung the chain around, the mace at the very end striking Aquilamon in the chest and knocking him to the side.

"Aquilamon!" She called to her digimon. The maroon eagle stood and took to the skies.

"We've gotta help him, he doesn't stand a chance against Phantomon, and Gatomon's too weak to DNA digivolve," Patamon said. T.K. nodded and pulled out his digivice. the next moment Angemon was flying to Aquilamon's aid.

"I have a score to settle with you," he called to the virus.

"Bring it, angel-boy. You won't defeat me so easily this time."

"Hand of Fate!" Phantomon easily dodged that energy beam and parried with his own attack.

"Shadow Scythe!" Angemon swung out of the way, only to barely miss Phantomon as he tried to slice him. "I'm going to clip your wings!" Another swing and miss.

"Angel Rod!" There was the clang of metal hitting metal as staff and scythe locked together. Angemon brought his free hand forward to launch another Hand of Fate, which successfully hit him. Phantomon went soaring to the ground, both of their weapons free falling to the dirt. "Hand of fate!" he yelled again, getting a clear shot to the chest before the ghost had a chance to retaliate. Phantomon's data quickly broke apart.

"Crimson Lightning!" Angemon felt the energy rope suddenly tightening around his body as he as flung into Aquilamon. "Impressive, I must admit, but you're forgetting about me," Myotismon said. He raised both hands in the air. "Pandemonium!" A dark mist surrounded them all, so thick that no one could see more that a foot around them.

"What's going on? This is _Malo_Myotismon's attack!" Cody observed.

"You'll all shall find that I am must stronger than our last encounter, with all the powers of my three forms. Myotismon laughed as horror reached the faces of all his enemies. "I can assure you that **none **of you will be getting out of this..."

He chuckled and grinned. "...alive."


	9. The Best

Well, I spent longer on this that i wanted to. (stupid end of course projects)

---

Ken backed up, grabbing a hold of Wormmon in the process, and maneuvered his way through the thick cloud of darkness. It felt evil, like the cloud he'd been trapped as the Digimon Emperor, also made by Myotismon. Around him he could here the other Digidestined calling to one another, but the mist obscured things so their voices had no determinable source. He took another step back and collided into something, or someone.

"Who's there?!" Came the voice behind him, thankfully friend, not foe.

"Davis?" Ken turned around to face Davis, close enough for him to see in the shroud, also holding his digimon so the wouldn't be separated.

"Ken, it's you. Great, now we can DNA digivolve to take this creep down," he said enthusiastically, pumping his fist into the air.

"Wait a second Davis, that might not be such a great idea."

"Why not? We'll just have Wormmon and Veemon digivolve to Imperialdramon like last time and defeat him."

"But we can't see anything, so if we went on the offensive, our digimon would just be at risk," Ken told him.

"He's got a point," Veemon added, looking up and Davis. The boy stared down at his partner, then at Ken. He sighed.

"Okay, you have a point, but what else _can_ we do. Dude, we're sitting ducks right now!"

"I'm thinking," Ken replied, and left it at that. He closed his eyes, hand on his chin. Davis stared at the other boy, clearly deep in though and crossed his arms to at least _try_ to come up with a plan of his own.

"I got nothing," came the response after a few moments. Ken opened one eye to regard Davis's slight interruption, but immediately shut it again. "Man, I wish Gatomon or Wizardmon was with us. One of them would know what he was up to."

The new revelation entered Ken's mind. _Gatomon and Wizardmon._ He snapped open his eyes and startled Davis, who had proceeded to scratching at the ground with some random stick he had found, with a sudden exclamation.

"We have to find Kari, Gatomon, and Wizardmon! He's going after them first!"

Davis stared, processing the new information, until the message got to him. "Dude, you're right! Okay, time to digivolve."

---

**Now** he was in trouble

It took a while for the Bakemon to realize that there was only _one_ Tapirmon under Myotismon's power, but once he did, he informed everyone within earshot of his escape. Now Tapirmon was on the run from an army of Bakemon and the item he had stolen was slowing him down. He shifted the pilfered object in his stubby little arms so he wouldn't drop it as he rounded the corner. There was enough distance between him and the mob for Tapirmon to band his head against the secret brick and open the passage before they came around.

He let out a sigh and dropped the object, staring in amazement that that he was able to get way carrying something almost half size his size. Tapirmon examined it for a few moments until he figured out exactly what he had to do with it. The vaccine groaned, and picked it up once more as he made his way down the tunnel, reopening the corridor that he had sealed off to protect the digidestined. Tapirmon grimaced, knowing that he had probably caught up with them by now.

He quickened his pace. Soon he found the ladder, pushed open the trapdoor, and peaked out, only to be met with total darkness. He shut the hatch and slunk back down, not knowing what to do next.

---

Imperialdramon Fighter Mode shot up from the black mist, hovering above the dark cloud that covered the area the digidestined had occupied. Two dark orbs fired up at him, but luckily he spotted and slid out of the way. Two more raced towards him, but this time he was ready. He dodges again and went on the rebound, he alined the cannon on his arm, firing off a Positron Laser in the direction of the attack. It hit something, but nothing happened after that. He floating down a little closer only to have the red whip wrap itself around him and pull him into the chaos. Imperialdramon crashed into the ground, leaving a good sized crater as he shakily stood up. He began to fly up, but the crimson lighting grabbed a hold of him again and puled him back down. The mega grabbed a hold of the whip and yanked it towards him, along with the virus on the other end. Myotismon came racing towards him.

Feet first.

He delivered a sturdy kick to Imperialdramon's jaw, causing him to drop the whip and stagger back. Myotismon cackled.

"Crimson Mist!" A black wave of energy, shaped like a sickle's blade shot forward and hit his opponent in the stomach, pushing him farther back into the mist. He laughed and called out another attack. "Venom Infusion!" Rainbow colored beams shot form his eyes, knocking Imperialdramon onto his back before he had a chance to fight back. Myotismon cackled again and rose himself into the air. "How on earth did you fools mange to destroy me three times? Is that the best you can do, Digidestined?" he called out for them all to hear. During his rambling, Imperialdramon rose up again. Myotismon cast him an unconcerned glance, then knocked him right back down again.

"Giga Crusher!" Myotismon turned around a second to late and he was shot down by white sphere. He skidded across the ground, nearly collided with a couple of the digidestined and the fog began to fade to nothing. Imperialdramon stepped over the vampire, a smirk on his face. the dragon mouth on his armor snapped shut as he gave his reply. "No, Myotismon, we're just getting started."

Myotismon glared at him and raised his arms, palms facing the dragon-like digimon. "Grizzly Wing!" The bats came rushing forward, forming a spiral around Imperialdramon, each one slowly draining away his data bit-by-bit. The dispersed themselves and Imperialdramon fell to his knees, splitting into Chibomon and Leafmon. He snorted at the two baby digimon and walked away as their partners rushed to them.

"I tried," Chibomon whispered as Davis cradled him in his arms.

"I know," he softly replied, looking to Ken, who was having the same conversation with his own partner. Meanwhile, Angemon and Ankylomon had merged into Shakkoumon and were confronted Myotismon with Aquilamon, while Wizardmon ushered Gatomon and Kari away from the battle.

"If a mega didn't stand a chance against me, what makes you think the lot of you will do any better?" Aquilamon snarled and charged.

"Grand Horn!" Myotismon yawned and simply flicked his wrist to the side, causing Aquilamon to change directions and slam into a particularly thick tree, which fell under the force of his attack. Aquilamon groaned, and changed back to Hawkmon.

"Kachina Bombs!" Shakkoumon shouted, taking his chance to attack. The bomb launched from his waist, but the vampire caught it and tossed it back just at it exploded. Shakkoumon was thrown back by his own attack, but still in the fight, until Myotismon took the offensive again, launching another Crimson mist which reduced Shakkoumon back to Patamon and Armadillomon.

"I guess that really was the best they could do," he muttered to himself before returning to his original plan. Wizardmon defensively moved in front of the two girls, holding his staff at ready. "Do you really want to die again?" Myotismon exasperatedly asked him.

"I won't allow you to hurt them," he said, eyes narrowing. "Magical Game!"

"Oh not this again." He moved his cloak in front of him and the blue lightning merely bounced off. He pulled out his own lightning, the crimson variety, and tossed Wizardmon aside like last time. "I'll deal with you later," he said, advancing on Kari and Gatomon. "Now, I shall finally be able to watch the two of you die."

"No you won't!" called a voice. Everyone turned and there stood Tapirmon, bruised, but still alive. "Head's up Kari!" With all his might, the little boar heaved something towards the girl. She caught it and

looked down at what she held. It was a digiegg, exactly matching the head of Wizardmon's staff in size and shape, but the markings differed. The symbols had ben replaced with an arc containing an 'x' with a small diamond in each intersection, all in black. Kari sent a worried look to Gatomon, who was still badly beaten and weak.

"We have to," she answered. Kari sighed, but put on a serious face. With one swift movement she held the digiegg high in the air.

"Digi-Armor energize!"


	10. New Power

Everyone shielded their eyes from the bright light, Myotismon shivering slightly under it's glare. The egg rose out of Kari's hands and it's data began to break apart, spiraling around Gatomon.

"No, not that!" Myotismon yelled in protest, but far to late.

"Gatomon Armor Digivolve to... Ceressmon, magical protector!" The light finally dispersed as she spoke those words, her voice changing on the last part to resemble Angewomon's, only lighter. There stood a woman, about a foot taller than Kari, with a light complexion and blond hair pulled back by a crimson band into a high ponytail that reached just past her shoulders while the rest hung somewhere around her waist. She was clothed in a strapless maroon dress that stopped before her knees with a knee-length cloak attached to the back of it and short, dragging sleeves that weren't attached to the rest of her dress. There were three red stripes around her waist that ended in points on both ends at the front. Brown gloves covered her hands and from underneath came tan bandages wrapped around her arms that nearly reached her elbows, a long strand hanging loose from each. Her boots matched her gloves, but had a large grey buckle on them, also with bandages coming out that stopped at the knees, but no ends hung out. Instead of human ears, however, Ceressmon had Gatomon's familiar purple tufted ears, as well as her tail, eyes and ring, which was now a choker around her neck. She held a wooden staff, more bandages wrapped near the top with both ends fluttering about freely. the head was a large, golden ring that matched her own, with an blue, upside-down triangle inside that bore the egg's symbol.

"YOU!" Myotismon yelled to Tapirmon. "How dare you steal that item from me! I was hoarding it away just so this wouldn't happen!" He tried to attack Tapirmon, but an invisible force dragged him away.. Wizardmon was back on his feet, and bringing the injured Tapirmon over to Kari, where she could keep him safe. The ultimate began to followed, but Wizardmon lead him away, tossing several Magical games in his direction as the mage head away from the digidestined.

"Venom Infusion!' The ray beams hit the ground just behind Wizardmon's feet, but the force was enough to cause him to topple over. "Now, this time, you'll **stay** dead! Crimson Lightning!" The attach would've hit, if a newly digivolved sorceress hadn't stepped in the way, the whip wrapping itself around her staff. She jerked it away and the energy stream broke.

Myotismon stared, mouth agape. "Impossible! No one should be able to break my Crimson Lightning. This power should've stayed locked up."

"What power?" she asked.

"After I was destroyed the last time, everyone one assumed I was history, but my loyal servant brought me back again by sacrificing many of themselves. After that, I kept a low profile, slowly building up my forces to seek revenge once again. Then I came across a strange item with untold power, the digiegg of magic. I tried to use it power for myself, but it reeked of goodness and justice, so I locked in up in my headquarters so none of my enemies could use it against me, with only Phantomon knowing of it's existence. Then, this TRAITOR," he glared at Tapirmon, "managed to escape and _stole_it and gave it to you!" Ceressmon blinked, confused. "But you can't use it against me if I kill you now!" He turned suddenly and launched at her, but she was dragged down last minute as Wizardmon grabbed a hold of her cape.

"Thanks," she told him, standing up. "That's how many times you've saved me?

"Who's counting?" he calmly replied as she held out a hand for her old friend. As he took it, streams of digital code began to materialize around him. She stepped back as the code began circling, and a new digimon took Wizardmon's place.

The new digimon took a step forward, smiling at the now astonished Ceressmon. He was slightly taller than her, pale skin with black lines drawing out from under his eyes and dirty-blond hair. His blue, pointed hat rested just above his eyes, a silver diamond right between them. His suit was maroon, like Ceressmon's dress, but silver and gold armor covered it in several places and he had a blue cape on his back. His hands were encased in brown gloves and his feet in brown boots. In one hand, this strange digimon carried a sliver orb, while the other was occupied by a sword with a flaming blade.

"A Mystimon?" Myotismon said, taken by surprise. He blinked a few times, but regained his cocky smirk. "No matter, I will still kill you all."

"In your dreams!" Ceressmon growled, leaping into the air, but instead of dropping back down, she merely floating there, glowering. The staff in her hands pointed forwards and the gold ring began to glow. "Staff Strike!" she yelled, swinging it back as a gold arc zoomed towards Myotismon.

He slid out the way. "Is that all?"

Ceressmon smirked. "No."

The energy attack doubled back, branching out into three arcs, which all made contact with the vampire's back. He was caught by surprise, but unfortunately, it didn't do as much damaged as she would've preferred.

"I knew I should've destroyed that thing when I had the chance," he hissed. She raised her staff for another go, but a hand pushed it down slightly. She turned to find Mystimon floating beside her.

"As much as I know you want to take him down single handedly," he told her, "you need help." The armor digimon snorted, blowing a dishelved bang out of her face.

"Yeah, I know, but I don't want you to get hurt because of me again."

"Who said it was just me?"

"What are you talking about? Everyone one else can't fight anymore."

"Not for long." Mystimon tossed his crystal ball high into the air and muttered an incantation. It began to rapidly sin, firing out five light beams that each hit one of the digimon.

"Chibomon warp digivolve to... AlforceVeedramon!" Chibomon changed into a humanoid digimon, covered in blue and silver armor with a giant gold 'V' on the chest plate and clawed hands and feet. His blue helmet had two long horns sticking out from the back, two gauntlets wrapped around his wrists and the right one held glowing blue beam swords and her had huge, purple wings which were torn at the bottoms.

"Leafmon warp digivolve to... GrandKuwagamon!" Leafmon had now become a giant grey beetle with huge pincers and six clawed feet, an axe-like structure was on the front two. Four rust-colored wings sprouted from his back and the back of his head was similar to that of a Pterodactyl's.

"Hawkmon digivolve to... Eaglemon!" Hawkmon had been replace by a giant eagle covered in gold armor. His beak an talons were grey and he had arms, also with sharp grey talons.

"Armadillomon warp digivolve to... Vikemon!" Now, what was once Armadillomon was now a large, furry digimon with two small horns, almost walrus-like in appearance. His hands had so fur on them and had rings on each of the five fingers. There was a belt around his waist with a red loincloth, several straps on his arms, two intersecting ones on his chest and the tan coast of some animal draped over his back and shoulders. A blue and gold shield covered each shoulder and two maces rest on his back.

"Patamon warp digivolve to... Seraphimon." Once again, Patamon was transformed into the legendary angel, Seraphimon.

And all the digidestined had only one thing to say. "Wow."

"What! How could you possibly bring about all their Mega forms at once?" Myotismon demanded, glaring at Mystimon as his crystal ball lowered back into his left hand. His only response was a smirk.

"Alright guys, all together now!" Ceressmon called to the digimon, still admiring their fully digivolved forms. "Magic's Revenge!" Ceressmon held her staff high and the symbol in the center turned red and shot out in a rapid beam.

"Blast Fire!" Mystimon's sword fired out a wave of flames like a blow torch.

"Viking Axe!" Vikemon reached behind his back and tossed the two maces right at Myotismon.

"Hallow Ascension!" Seraphimon raised his hands high and a deadly bolt of lightning struck down.

"X-Scissor Claw!" Energy began to gather between GrandKuwagamon's pincers to critical point before he fired it.

"Mystic Break!" Eaglemon opened his beak to fire a white beam.

"Ray of Victory!" The giant 'V' on AlforceVeedramon fired out a beam of energy.

All seven attacks hit Myotismon at the same time with deadly accuracy. He screamed in pain as his data just exploded under the pressure of the attacks!

"We did it!" AlforceVeedramon yelled out, attempting to get a high five from his fellow digimon, but none were really looking at him. They all were focussing of the dark cloud in front of them, burning red eyes glaring out at them.

"Did you really think it would be that simple again?" the cloud said, a mouth parting the darkness. "You will all suffer the fate you deemed me too many times." The digimon all shifted to battle positions, still able to hold their current forms. He laughed maniacally. "Victory shall at last be mine!"

----

Ceressmon's picture can be viewed here: www . Fanart-Central . net/pic-586701 . html


	11. Ally

**A/N- First of, an apology to all my readers for making you wait. I hit a huge block on this chapter. Every time I tried to work on it, I was drawing a blank and i literally wanted to bang my head on the desk. (which I refrained from doing because of the things i keep on my desk) Again, so everyone, I'm sorry for the long wait. gives pie and brownies to loyal reviewers And finally on with the next chapter.**

--------

The digimon all tried their attacks again, only for each one to simply pass through the evil shadow Myotismon had become.

He laughed. "That almost tickled." The darkness began to grow, it's shape molding into that of Myotismon's, but still all black. "Now who shall I destroy first?" He asked himself, rubbing a shadowy hand under his chin. "I was originally planning to kill you digidestined first and make Gatomon suffer, but she's become a bit of a nuisance recently…" He trailed off, eyes scanning all his opponents before him. The standstill went on until something unexpected happened.

Little Tapirmon pushed himself out of Kari's arms and stood right in front of Myotismon.

"What are you doing you idiot!? He'll kill you!" Davis yelled.

"Are you volunteering to be deleted?" Myotismon asked him. "If so, I will be happy to oblige."

"You're the one here who's going to be deleted!" Tapirmon yelled with a newfound fury. "I have stood there, watching you, putting up with your cruelty for far too long. So now I'm going to end this once and for all, even if I take my own life." It was silent for a few moments until Myotismon broke out in an evil cackle.

"YOU?! Defeat ME?! Don't make me laugh. You couldn't even outwit a Bakemon." Tapirmon growled and before anyone knew it, he had launched himself into the air and put himself in the very center of shadow Myotismon.

That's when the holy ring around his forearm activated. It began to glow with a white light and the shadow began to crumble away, from the outside in. "What is this?!" Myotismon demanded, unable to stop himself from slowly fading away.

"This is the end, for both of us," Tapirmon replied.

"Tapirmon!" Kari called out to the small digimon.

He looked at the digidestined, with a small, weak smile, his body beginning to delete as well "You are safe now, digidestined. I hope, that in this way, I will be able to redeemed my sorry existence."

"You already did," she told.

He smiled again. "Fair well," he managed to say before both he, and Myotismon, were gone. The small trinket he wore upon his wrist clanked to the ground. Kari walked over, and picked the ring up, hugging it close to her. Yolei and T.K. came over to comfort her. The digimon, seeing the threat was gone, all powered down, ending up in their In-Training forms, except Mystimon and Ceressmon, who both went back to Champion. They each returned to their partners.

"Why must it always end like this?" Tokomon asked T.K. "Why must good digimon always die?"

T.K. sighed and shook his head. "That's the cruelty of our worlds. The innocent always pay for the crimes of others. We can only pray that things turn out better for them." He gave Kari a small encouraging smile and she returned it, placing Tapirmon's lost ring around her arm, as a reminder.

"Alright! Time to go home!" Davis shouted, completely ruining the moment as he trotted off in a random direction. He stopped suddenly and looked around. "Which way is home?"

Everyone groaned.

"I guess I'm leading again," Wizardmon said quietly, heading in the right direction. The digidestined picked up their In-Training partners and followed

"You too," Kari told Gatomon, lifted her into her arms, since the cat was back to her usual form her injuries were noticeable again. Gatomon frowned, but didn't complain.

--------

Their walk back was relatively quiet. Since no one wanted to bring up what had recently happened,no one had anything to say, besides Davis, who only complained about the lack of talking. Eventually, he too closed his mouth and remained silent. They reached one of the various TV screens and transported their way out of the Digital world, back trough Izzy's laptop, where the others were still waiting in the park for them.

"Oh good, you all made it back in one piece," Sora commented. "What's wrong Kari? You got Gatomon back." Kari didn't say anything, but managed to put on a slightly happier face.

"It was Myotismon after all. He's gone now," Cody told her.

"Awesome!" Tai interjected. "Let's hope it stays that way. But why so glum?"

"We made a new ally, and lost him just as fast," T.K. explained. "A little Tapirmon who was helping us out."

"That would explain Kari's new bracelet," Izzy commented.

"Well I say mope later. We should be celebrating our victory against the Dracula wannabe," Davis added, pumping his fist into the air. The digidestined cheered and walked off to make plans. Kari stayed behind, Gatomon and Wizardmon still with her.

"Don't worry Kari, I'm sure well see him again someday," her partner said.

Kari looked down at her. "You sure?"

"I came back, didn't I?" Wizardmon said.

"Yeah," she smiled. "You're right. I just have to be like T.K. and hope for the best. Thanks you guys."

"Hey you guys! Hurry up," Yolei called form the group. Kari smiled at them once again and the trio caught up with everyone else.

---

**A/N- okay, not as long as I would've hoped for. The next chapter WILL be longer and hopefully I'll get it up soon.**


	12. Better Late

**Okay, I got this up at last. i wanted to update before the week got hectic because I'm going to Warped Tour on Wednesday and Thursday's my birthday (15, whoot!) **

------

The digidestined set up in the park later that evening, in their usual spot. There weren't any decorations, besides the extremely colorful table cloth, most of the color from several unidentifiable stains, that they were using to cover the picnic tables they'd pushed together to make room for everyone. Something Joe had dragged out of his closet only because it was big enough. They had music, drinks, mainly punch, chips and soda, and pizza, _lots_ of pizza. Really it was more of an excuse to get out of the house and sit outside all night eating pizza and partying than celebrating the defeat of a powerful enemy, but the kids and digimon were enjoying themselves anyway.

Then they brought out the karaoke.

Eyes traveled to four members of the team that had been heard singing before, but thankfully Tai remembered how well he sang and decided to spare everyone from that experience, and Joe had no plans to in the first place. Agumon and Gomamon were, unfortunately, another story. The other digital participants in the singing game were Biyomon, Palmon, Tentomon, Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon, while the humans were Matt, Sora, Kari, Davis, Yolei, and Ken (who was dragged in unwillingly by Yolei). Some of the non-participants just watched in amusement as some people embarrassed themselves in front of everyone. The rest, who had some common sense and knew better than to be around certain people when they sing, quickly located themselves to the other side of the park and out of earshot the minute Yolei took the machine out.

Wizardmon was one of the one's with enough common sense to leave before things got started. He was sitting comfortably in a tree watching the chess match going on below him between Izzy and Ken, after he had escaped from Yolei when it was her turn to sing.

"There you are," someone said to him, nearly causing the wizard to loose his balance and fall to the ground. He looked up to find Gatomon staring down at him from a nearby tree limb with those bright blue eyes of hers.

"Was I supposed to be somewhere else?" he calmly asked her with a hidden grin.

"Very funny," she told him, jumping down to an unoccupied part of the branch. "How come you don't want to watch the others sing. Some of their performances are pretty amusing."

"How are you wounds?" he asked, completely ignoring the question she asked him.

"Better. Kari gave me some healing salve which took care of the minor ones, but none of them hurt anymore. Now stop changing the subject to me, I hate it when you do that."

Wizardmon chuckled, but answered her. "I considered staying, but I'm not so sure if my ears could handle it."

Gatomon giggled. "You're probably right, but their not all as bad as a few people that I won't mention for their sakes."

"Guys," Izzy suddenly interrupted. "As interesting as your conversation may be, it is making it a little difficult to focus on the game. Might I suggest that you please relocate."

"Sorry," they said simultaneously and lowered themselves to ground level, Wizardmon flying and Gatomon hopping down a ladder of branches.

"Thank you," he replied, moving his bishop without even looking at them. The two digimon shrugged to each other and walked off in some random direction.

"You know, the last time we walked through here together, the circumstances were a lot different," Wizardmon commented to his female companion once the two of them were far enough away that their talking wouldn't disturb the two boy geniuses.

She glanced at him curiously before slowly nodding her head. "You're right. I can't believe it's already been over five years." Gatomon paused and turned back so she was staring him in the face. "I really missed you."

"And I missed being with you as well, but all that's over now."

"Yeah," she said quietly, stopping to lean back into a tree.

Wizardmon stopped also and turned to her. "What's wrong?"

"I just remembered something, Tapirmon. We finally get you back only to loose another friend, even though we only knew him for a little while." She sighed, redirecting her gaze to the ground as she slowly slid to a sitting position.

"Unfortunately, that kind of thing always happens when you're dealing with Myotismon, or anything or one else that's pure evil." She sighed again. Wizardmon sat down beside her and lifted her chin up so she was looking straight at him. "Don't worry, he'll return a lot sooner than I did."

"Really?" She blushed, realizing the position they were in and pulled away slightly. "How do you know?"

He put his hand back at his side and shrugged. "Magic." Gatomon rolled her eyes then cast them to the sky. The stars were out, shining as brightly as they could, no cloud to obstruct their beauty. The moon was a delicate crescent, glowing with an iridescent white light. In the background, they could faintly hear music being played by their friends back at the party, but there, they were alone, surrounded by only the night's beauty. It was perfect, like a fairy tale. Wizardmon looked at her, then let his own eyes follow her gaze.

"One thing's for sure, you definitely haven't changed one bit in five years," she told him.

"No, but you have. A lot."

"I guess, but there isn't a day where I don't wish that I would've never needed to change. That I had never become the digimon I used to be."

He gently laid his hand on top of her paw, letting her know it was okay. "Sometimes we need our past to happen exactly the way it did, no matter how bad it may have been."

"Is this another of your fate theories?"

"Doesn't matter, just hear me out. Life follows a tricky path, but in the end, things always turn out the way their suppose to, even if it takes a while. Like the saying goes: Better late than never."

She laughed under her breath, remembering when he gave her that speech before. "Tell me something I haven't already heard," Gatomon said, mostly to herself. He focused back on her and answered that question.

"Would I love you suffice?"

Gatomon froze. _Did I just hear those words right or am I dreaming?_ she thought. Then she felt a hand tilt her head back and something press against her lips. It took her a second to realize Wizardmon was kissing her. _No, it's not a dream, it s a dream come true,_ she happily thought as she returned it, feeling as if she was on cloud nine.

They parted and Gatomon quietly said. "I love you too." She looked up into his emerald eyes, tenderly brushing away one of his golden brown locks as she said it. He drew her closer into a warm embrace as they sat there under the stars.

"I waited far too long to tell you those words," he whispered in her ear, an almost regretful tone in his voice. Gatomon hugged him tighter in a reassuring way. "I thought I'd never get the chance to." She gave the wizard a small peck on the cheek.

"Better late than never."


	13. Epilouge

5 months later-

Things went by as usual for the digidestined, a few random attacks by low-level villains, but no signs that Myotismon would ever return a fifth time. Kari had started wearing Tapirmon's holy ring as a bracelet everyday as a way to remember him. In fact, it became a trademark for her just like her camera, or at least to those who didn't know it's true meaning. Wizardmon and Gatomon had become a couple and were so inseparable that their friends started referring to the two of them as Wizgato sometimes. Seeing how happy her partner was encouraged Kari to finally work up enough nerve to ask T.K. out and they've been together for nearly two months. Yolei and Ken, who had been together the whole time, allegedly, started acting more like boyfriend and girlfriend than they had been before.

But not everyone was having good experiences with romance.

Davis and Veemon were clearly depressed by the fact their dream-girls had hooked up with other guys, but after a week of moping, they both found new girls to stalk. And speaking of stalking, Matt still had to deal with Davis's crazy fan-girl sister, Jun, who was still after him. Tai was still trying to figure out whether or not he liked Sora in that respect and she was still waiting for him to make a move.

Everyone else decided their was enough going on, romance-wise, with the digidestined and chose to stay out of that business for a little while longer, until things calmed down.

Kari had decided to take a quiet stroll around park one day. She'd gone by herself because she needed sometime to think and reflect on things. Namely, the digimon whose rind her wore about her wrist. Wizardmon and Gatomon had assured her he'd come back soon, but five months had already passed, not quite her opinion of soon.

She sighed and looked up into the clouds. For a brief second she almost saw the puffs of condensed water form themselves into the shape of a Tapirmon, but the wind scattered the image almost as soon as it had created it. She shook her head, telling herself her mind had been playing tricks on her.

Then Kari heard a sound in the distance, so soft she had to strain her ears to hear it. It sounded like crying. She followed the noise until she came a across a small girl huddled up under a tree, her face buried in her knees and crying her eyes out.

Kari frowned, feeling sorry for the poor child. "Are you okay?" she softly asked.

Her head shot up and she stared at Kari, her hazel eyes blood-shot from crying. She had black hair that reached down to her shoulders that was curled slightly at the bottom.

"K-kari?" she sniffled, voice hoarse. Kari recognized her once she saw the girls face. She was a 10-year-old who lived in the same building as her, but two floors below.

"Noiko, what happened? Are you alright?" Kari asked, now more concerned because this child was a friend of hers.

She sniffed and rubbed the tears from her eyes. "I'm sniff f-fine, it's- it's just..." Noiko trailed off and began to sob into her jeans again. Kari pulled out a handkerchief she had in her backpack and handed it to her. Noiko took it and wiped away her tears again.

She sat down, facing the girl. "Now what's wrong with you? You're normally not one to cry."

She blew her nose into the tissue before answering. "All my fr-friends have digimon partners and for some reason I g-got left out. Now they keep t-teasing me about it, saying I'm not _w-w-worthy _to have a digimon of my own." She had started sniffling again and kari got her another tissue from her bag. "Thanks."

"Don't feel bad Noiko, I'm sure you're not the only one without a digimon."

"But I don't know any of those people!" she cried, burying her head again. Kari sighed and pat the small child on the back a few times to comfort her. Eventually she lifted her head again and looked at Kari with her teary eyes. Kari took the handkerchief from her and wiped away a few lingering tears.

"Don't worry, you probably just haven't met you're partner yet. I was sick so I had to stay home while all the other digidestined first went to the digital world and met their partners. So while all of them were out having adventures, I was stuck at home with a cold. Then I still had to wait even after they came back." Noiko crossed her arms and pouted, obviously not convinced.

"At least you have your partner. And the others didn't tease you about not having one."

"That's because hey didn't know I was supposed to have one."

"Exactly! But now everyone has a digimon, and I've still been left out." She leaned her chin down on her knees, face still visible. Kari sighed, not sure of what else se could do to help her friend feel better about her predicament. She pushed her weigh forward onto her arms, staring downward at the grass they were seated upon. The gold of the holy ring sparkled in the sunlight, almost as if it was winking at her.

It gave Kari an idea.

She sat back up straight up and reached for her wrist, sliding the ring off of it and into her palm. Noiko lifted her head up to see what she was doing.

"This," Kari said, holding the ring up, "belonged to a very nice digimon I came to call 'friend' in the short time I knew him. He died in battle saving us from a powerful enemy and now this is all that's left of him."

"I thought digimon were reborn when they died."

"There are, usually, but this particular foe has a tendency for keeping that from happening."

"Okay. Why are you telling me this?" Noiko asked, eyebrow raised slightly."

Kari sighed. "This ring gives me hope that things will turn out the way they're supposed to and that he'll return someday, so I'm giving it to you. Maybe it'll give you the same hope that you'll someday find your partner."

She placed in Noiki's hands and the instant the ring left Kari's hands, it began to change shape into a golden digiegg with the runes imprinted on the ring circling the middle.

"Kari," she asked, eyes staring in disbelief of what she held in her hands. "Is this what I think it is?"

"I told you you hadn't met your partner yet," she answered, getting up and walking away with a smile on her face. "I guess you two were right after all," she sad to herself, not caring who heard her. Kari glanced over her shoulder at Noiki, who was spinning around excitedly, clutching her digiegg close to her body.

Her smile grew. _It couldn't have happened to a nicer pair._

The End


End file.
